Sunday, February 12, 2012

Stonyfield Honey OIKOS Organic Nonfat Greek Frozen Yogurt Review

Oh, being a blogger is so tough some days... hehehe, just kidding, but there are times when I try a smidge too hard, as is the case with Oikos.

Wait, first, let me use my mastery of the obvious to state that 2012 will be the year of greek frozen yogurt. I mean, come on, greek yogurt is steadily gaining market share, in part due to the protein content, so there's no reason greek frozen yogurt won't take the same trend now that Ciao Bella is jumping in the ring. Heck, even Hannaford's has a housebrand of greek froyo (review will be up later this week).

Ok, I'm all over the place here, so let's introduce Oikos. Stonyfield is pretty proud of Oikos as it is the only "nationally available" organic greek yogurt. Now Stonyfield doesn't mess around a ton with ice cream and froyo, but you can find them in some stores. Seeing a chance to get ahead of everyone else, frozen Oikos came out at the end of the 2011 summer.

Here it is, Stonyfield OIKOS organic nonfat greek frozen yogurt, the honey variety. Some on you might be thinking "wow, a honey flavor, that's so unique!". Others might be going "Rodzilla loves the blueberry, why not start there?". Well, both of those statements played into it. I knew it should be good and it's a fairly new product, so I thought I would spice things up a little. I mean, come on, I've had vanilla honey granola froyo from Haagen-Daz, Turkey Hill, and Pierre's Yovation (and that's in order of decreasing honey flavor), so why not try this one.

Starting off with a plastic seal? Nice.

Wow, when they say honey swirl, they mean it.

It's literal puddles of gooey honey. Are you worried it might be too much honey?

Well, you would be right. I can tolerate alot of honey for the sake of this blog, but this one is too much. Even if you avoid the swirl, the honey flavor is ingrained in every molecule of this stuff. I can't even pretend to like it. I'm trying to focus on the texture so that at least I can judge that, but all I get is HONEY HONEY HONEY...

You young whipper snappers may not remember this, but back in the 80s and early 90s, you use to be able to actually get real pure honey with your Chicken McNuggets. Oh I loved honey back then. I even remember this one hot day with my dad where we hadn't grabbed lunch yet. I was so hungry that I grabbed a warm honey packet that was sitting on the dashboard and... well, that idea didn't go over well. Suffice it to say that eating this frozen yogurt reminds me very much of that day.

Ok, enough painful reminiscing. I have no doubt that this is a quality product and I plan on trying one of their other flavors: chocolate, blueberry, or vanilla. Sure this one is a five dollar loss, but I'm not giving up yet.

Verdict? too... much.... honeyBuy Again? OIKOS: yes, this flavor: no

The Final Scoop: I couldn't pawn this one off on my daughter or wife, so in the trash it went.

My first thought when I saw honey i thought it'd be over powering. I find even a little honey can completely destroy a frozen treat and that swirl looks like someone squirted one of those honey bear throughout the treat. I'm excited for the hannaford review though. Hopefully you liked it as much as I did.

Honestly, if you are not hooked on the idea of it being frozen, if you're interested in the whole Greek yoghurt with fruit/honey/whatever, you might want to head to the dairy section and get a cup of Fage...

I love the honey Fage; as you get the mix in on the side, you can choose just HOW sweet to make it... and heck, chill it and it's almost as good as something frozen. ;D

Fage is a fantastic brand. I really loved the Greek Yogurt with the cherry topping on the side.

As for the Oikos, I know what you mean about the honey being too overpowering; I found that was the case when I tried the (unfrozen) "honey-on-the-bottom" cups of yogurt. Just too strong - would have been tasty with less honey.

So even though you say the honey is overpowering (and I trust you) I can't help but really want to try this. Two things holding me back - I now have self serve froyo available to me once again, and Nick Rovo mentioned these are only being carried by whole foods..and the ones around me are charging about $6 a pint.

Yeah it's a bummer that whole foods only has this seeing as I live no wheres near one but I'm not complaining. The hannaford's brand more than impressed me and will keep me satisfied till I can finally try some of these.

I tried this last night and loved it! I could not believe how thick it was because it was thicker than any of the Haagen-Dazs's ice creams I have ever had and I have tried 7 cartons from them this year. Plus, this is sweeter, tastier and better tasting than any of the Haagen-Dazs's flavors I have ever tried. I'm in shock that this is fat-free for being so thick because it was as thick as Ben and Jerry's ice cream. I find it funny that some people thought that this flavor was too sweet or that this had too much honey because I thought it was flavored well. Had they cut back on the amount of honey, people would be complaining that there was not enough and would feel ripped off. I will definitely buy this again and add mix-ins like peanut butter and graham crackers (or teddy grahams) or even candy bars. This is an excellent fat-free substitute for any ice cream.